Slow Living: Fashion Labels That Embrace The 2020 Aesthetic Trend Cottagecore

Perhaps you’ve come across it on TikTok or in your Instagram feeds. Images of young women lying in the grass, cradling bunnies in bohemian outfits like straight out of Picnic at Hanging Rock. Meet the new subculture: Cottagecore.

Cottagecore is a visual and lifestyle movement designed to fetishize the wholesome purity of the outdoors, spearheaded by teenagers of TikTok. Also known as Farmcore or Countrycore, this aesthetic trend is centered around a lifestyle that is harmonious and one with nature, with a focus on slow living and domesticity - a sharp contrast from our hyper digital and stimulated lives today. 

Some cottagecore activities include: maintaining a sourdough starter, getting yourself a floral print dress with ruffles, finding refuge in the great outdoors (hike at Bukit Timah Hill, anyone?), and general gardening, cooking, and frolicking (ideally in a forested area).

Cottagecore may have emerged as early as 2017, thanks to its popularity on TikTok, according to Noemie Sérieux, founder of the Instagram account CottagecoreBlackFolk. But with the pandemic hitting us this year, and the extra time we’ve had in our hands thanks to quarantine, cottagecore as a trend really blossomed as a means to finding personal fulfillment and purpose outside of capitalism and our monetary potential.

Besides its meaningful, domestic activities, cottagecore as a trend also offers ample inspiration for fashion, especially for summer and warmer weathers such as in Singapore. And in keeping with its philosophy of harmonious living with nature, here are some thoughtful, conscious fashion labels that embrace slow living, and fit perfectly into a cottagecore lifestyle.

Handmade to order by a mother-daughter duo in their native France, in small runs and only a few hours a week - which makes getting your hands on their pieces elusive and all the more covetable - MaisonCléo uses fabrics such as silk, cotton and linen for their designs. It also counts Marie Bernad and Leandra Medine as fans.

Designed, sourced and handcrafted in the Phillipines, "Munimuni", which means to reflect or ponder in Filipino, works with local artisans from the country's rural communities to provide them with sustainable income, to produce a range of clothes well suited for everyday wear.